Inflation Takes a Breather Despite Demand Pressure

摘要

Welcome to a new reality: Construction markets are recovering, but prices are not. True, extremely depressed materials prices related to residential construction spiked with the housing rebound in 2013, but those escalation rates are rapidly retreating. How rapidly? A year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' producer price index for softwood lumber posted an annual increase of 32.5%. By last January, that annual rate of increase had fallen to 2.8%. Likewise, the producer price index for plywood has steadily fallen from double-digit annual increases in early 2013. In January of this year, the PPI for plywood was down 2.5% from a year ago.